Vessel

Give a round of applause to Fueled By Ramen everyone.
Let's start with the good. The beginning of this album is ok, and the hooks on here, though not necessarily good, tend to be catchy and earworm-y. That's where the good stops. Even if the hooks are ear-catching, it does not excuse how degrading the rinky-dink, stock synths are on here. The rapping voice the singer puts on on most songs comes across as whiny, nasally, and childish. A combination of this, along with formulaic and same-y song structure, especially as the album goes on, weird mixing in some songs, same-y sounds, and lyrics that can be very surface level, and sometimes just not make much sense, creates an album that feels soulless, and energyless, and not as grand as it tries to perceive itself as. Even when the album tries to switch it up on some songs, it feels undeserved and mostly unrewarding. And the worst thing being, every single thing that they do slightly good on this album, they do a million times better on Trench, and is done several times better by other albums. I might come back to this for nostalgic reasons way in the future. How did I grow up listening to this.